Publisher: Intermix
Where did you get the book: e-ARC from publisher
Release date: August 19th
In The Wicked We Have Done, readers were introduced to Valerie Crane. But you don’t know her the way you think you do. This is her story…
Valerie has always been different from her identical twin Veda. Tattooed, fiery, and foul-mouthed, Valerie acts on instinct, getting even with anyone who wrongs her passive and sensitive sister.
At twenty-two, Veda doesn’t want to seek revenge against the three young men who raped her. As for Val…
Val never could manage her anger well.
As far as Val sees it, the Compass Room is simply a quicker way for her to die—payment for the crime she feels no guilt over. There isn’t a reason to fight, not until a girl as broken as she is reminds Val of what it’s like to hope…
*blurb taken from Goodreads*
This review will contains spoilers as it’s pretty hard to avoid as it pertains to events in the first book.
Our Broken Sky is a novella featuring Valerie, one of the Compass Room prisoners, from The Wicked We Have Done (review here). Valerie is guilty of her crime, and I wondered how her POV would play out in this novella and if I would feel any differently about her.
Speaking on a personal level, I’m sorta wishing a novella wasn’t done her POV because Valerie is a terribly selfish person and a raging psychotic killer. And at times I wanted to stop reading this novella because I didn’t enjoy reading about her. The first part of the book I enjoyed is when Valerie is tough, rough around the edges, and shows her vulnerability in a relationship with an ex-lover, Leila, that pains her. Valeria also wants to be different from her twin sister, Veda.
Valeria is at a party, and Leila is there and she wants to talk to Valerie. Valerie is trying so hard not to give in because she knows that it’s destructive, and that Leila will end up hurting her even more. So she’s determined to show Leila that she can handle only sex. It’s during this time where Veda is raped.
Valeria’s reaction to it afterwards was appalling. Her sister got raped, and Valerie is angry at Veda and blaming her for the “shitty way” she’s responding to the rape. This is going to be blunt but all I could think of was, Valerie, you need to shut the fuck up. Like right now. I couldn’t help but think how incredibly selfish Valerie was; by drugging and killing the rapists, she made it all about her instead of being there for her sister and supporting her.
Valerie is fucked up and horrible, and I’m actually questioning why I requested this book. Valerie tells her sister you can’t really love me because she kept the bastard child? A child Veda doesn’t know who the father is, and it wasn’t made clear in the book, but I guessed that it could be one of the rapists.
The middle part lags. It’s a brief rehash of The Wicked We Have Done, and it’s mostly Jace and Valerie having a very unromantic romance. There’s no build-up of a romance with Valerie and Jace. It’s just instant on Valerie’s part, and it’s probably because there was no time in a novella to build it up. I do believe romance is not the author’s strongest point in this series so far. I had issues with the romance in The Wicked We Have Done. There is no tension. There is no sexual attraction. No teasing moments. Nothing. Valerie’s sudden nervousness and bashfulness in front of Jace is abrupt. Everything is done so quickly that there was no way to believe in any of their romance because there was no depth.
The ending is not a HEA (readers will know this from The Wicked We Have Done) and I don’t know how I feel about this book. Valerie would kill again, I believe, and I don’t think she would feel guilty about doing so if she believed it justified her own beliefs and morals.
All in all, Our Broken Sky had an uneven pace and I don’t believe the novella did the romance between Jace and Valerie any justice. Valerie was not a character I could root for, and this novella just made me dislike her.
I give Our Broken Sky a D.